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Office Tchotchkes… Hitching a Ride to Endor

Most every office in the world has some sort of knick-knack, a doo-dad, or tchotchke (pronounced: “chotch-key”). My office almost nothing but! Since I’m in Disneyland today, this Office Tchotchke blog focuses on a toy from an awesome Disneyland ride…

Historical Background
Debuting at Disneyland, California in 1987, it was the first time that Disney had built a ride based on a non-Disney movie. (Now, of course, Disney has since purchased Lucasfilm and does own the rights to the Star Wars universe!) It was built on the location where Adventure Thru Inner Space had sat previously. In the ride, a robot named Rex (voiced by Paul Reubens) is the first-time pilot of a shuttle taking you to the forest moon of Endor. Things go awry and you end up missing your stop, flying through an ice comet, and joining the attack on the Death Star!

Cultural Impact
The ride was an instant hit! The line wound around outside, into an additional overflow queue room, back outside, then into the main building (designed to look like a busy space port) and finally onto the ride. The inside space port section of the queue was designed to be part of the experience. Various droids, including C-3P0 and R2-D2, could be seen working and chatting. The ride, a motion simulator, was fantastic! Just like being in the movie. It has since been replaced by an updated 3-D version of itself: Star Tours – The Adventures Continue.

The TchotchkeI loved the ride so much, I wanted to remember it when I left Disneyland. I bought this toy replica of the Star Speeder 3000, the bus-like vehicle that we ride on during our trip to Endor. It’s from the Star Trader store in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. It is a pull-back toy, so pulling it back and releasing it will cause it to roll under its own power for a few feet. It’s a wonderful reminder of the fun journey I took to Endor!

The Star Tours reboot now uses a Star Speeder 1000 design. It’s very similar, but with orange highlights instead of blue.

Did you have a chance to ride the original Star Tours before the update? Have you been on since? Which do you like better?

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